West Norriton Little Leaguers learn the value of maintaining the yard

WEST NORRITON — The West Norriton Little League field had help in the form of five young players in preparation of a game Thursday night after a morning storm drenched the diamond hours before the annual 8-year-old machine-pitch tournament was set to begin. Tournaments Director Emilio Mastrocola and league President Pat Ahmad brought their sons and friends to aid in the upkeep necessary for a safe playing field.

“(The kids) love playing baseball — all five of them — and they’re field rats basically, they’re always down here,” Ahmad said. “By default they just help us out.”

By 4 p.m., the boys had helped squeegee out all the puddles, raked the water back into the dirt, used a golf cart to drag the field, laid the bases out and then set up the pitching machine. The game would go on.

“Matt (Ahmad) asked me if I wanted to come help and I said ‘sure,’ ” Sean McQuaid, 14, said. “We made the fields nice.”

“It’s really important to know how to maintain (the field),” Matt Ahmad, 13, said. “You’re going to get dirt in the grass and that will kill the grass. If you don’t stripe it properly you’ll have a crooked line and a foul ball could be fair.”

Emilio Mastrocola’s son Juliano, 11, and Ahmad’s children, Matt and Andrew, 11, were joined by Jack, 12, and Sean McQuaid, 14, for the bit of work followed by a sandlot game of five-player baseball in a lower field.

“We thought we weren’t going to get any games in, but thanks to the work of our volunteers our fields have stayed really sharp and in good condition,” Pat Ahmad said.

When asked about the experience the young boys were getting in being responsible for the upkeep of the field, Ahmad said that most players just show up, walk on the field and start playing.

“I think it’s good for them,” Ahmad said. “It develops a good sense of respect in the effort that goes on behind scenes so they can play baseball.”

“If you don’t stripe it properly or rake it or maintain (the field) the way it should be, you’re not going to have a good baseball game,” Matt Ahmad said.